Elm and ash trees have been severely affected by newly introduced fungal diseases, diseases that have caused a large proportion of the trees to die. A future for the two tree species requires trees with natural resistance, and Swedish research has an important role to play in solving this problem. Formas is now announcing funding to support research that contributes to the development of knowledge that ensures healthy populations of elm and ash, and the restoration of natural habitats characterised by naturally reproducing trees.
All three Swedish species of elm trees, wych elm, field elm and European white elm, are currently critically endangered according to the Swedish national red list. According to the same list, ash is endangered. The worrying situation for the trees is caused by fungi brought to Europe as accidental passengers on foreign imports of timber and live plant material. The fungi causing Dutch elm disease and Ash dieback have then spread from tree to tree. Dying trees have devastating effects not only on the trees, but also on all the organisms that depend on elm and ash for their survival. Formas hereby announces funding to support research that contributes to the development of knowledge that ensures healthy populations of elm and ash, as well as the restoration of the natural habitats characterised by naturally reproducing elm and ash.
Formas welcomes project applications with a wide range of approaches and research orientations that have the potential to contribute to tree species recovery. The call is thematically framed by four sub-themes. Applicants should select two or three sub-themes for the project focus:
- Biology, ecology and pathology
- Application and development of breeding techniques
- Climate change and future threats
- Recovery of ecosystems and cultural heritage
Research groups are encouraged to coordinate joint project applications and allocate responsibilities and implementation according to focus and activities. The research groups in a project proposal may be based at different universities or different departments within the same university. It is also possible for one of the research groups involved in the project proposal to be based outside Sweden.
Anyone walking or travelling thrugh the forest and cultural landscape of southern and central Sweden today is likely to discover dead deciduous trees, perhaps also obviously diseased trees with wrinkled brown leaves, or dead defoliated branches. Elms are affected by Dutch elm disease, and virtually all elms that contract Dutch elm disease die within one or two seasons. Ash trees are affected by Ash dieback. Many ash trees have already died, but the situation for ash is not as severe as for elm. Some of the ash affected by the disease seem to survive and grow new shoots, even though branches die in the crown of the tree.
Both Dutch elm disease and Ash dieback are caused by fungi that come to Europe as accidental passengers when importing unbarked wood or live seedlings of exotic tree species for planting in parks and gardens. Global trade in timber, wood-based packaging materials and live plants have increased the risk that alien organisms, such as fungi, insects and bacteria, are transferred to environments where they were not previously present. The newly introduced organism can behave invasively and cause significant damage because native trees have not had the reason to develop resistance to a pest not previously present in the environment.
When trees die on a large scale, there are far-reaching ecological consequences. Elm and ash trees together host around 200 species of fungi, insects, mosses and lichens that depend on them. But it is also entire natural habitats that are disappearing; natural habitats where it is the presence of elms or ash trees that defines the place and the special environment. Not least, elms and ash are also appreciated by people. They are trees with which we have a special and close relationship. Their beauty has made them popular in parks, gardens and avenues, and when trees die, part of our cultural heritage also disappears.
The loss of natural habitats is a pressing and alarming issue in itself. But the issue and related knowledge also have practical implications. As part of the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council on nature restoration and amending), Member States are expected to assess the state of threatened natural habitats and develop restoration plans. There is a great need for knowledge about viable methods for restoring the environments characterised by elm and ash.
To maintain elm and ash as viable trees in natural stands, work is underway on several different fronts, both in Sweden and internationally. But it is not yet clear which approaches will lead to a lasting solution. This call therefore invites a diversity of approaches, methods and research questions within the framework of the restoration of resilient stands of elm and ash. The call is being implemented as part of a government commission to Formas (Government decision L12023/00216).
The call, and thus also the projects that will be granted from the call, aims to contribute to the development of knowledge that ensures healthy populations of elm and ash, as well as the restoration of the natural habitats characterised by naturally reproducing elm and ash. The call is also motivated to strengthen Swedish research on invasive pests of forest trees more generally and thereby increase national preparedness for future threats. Not only against elm and ash, but also pests that could pose a threat to other forest trees.
The call is based on a problem description of trees dying and natural habitats disappearing, and an idea for a solution that involves developing resilient trees that reproduce naturally and can form the basis for the recreation of resilient habitats. How to recreate natural environments in a way that favours natural reproduction and thus minimises continuous management, and how to improve incentives for restoration are important future issues. The call is challenge-driven and project proposals will be assessed according to their potential to contribute to knowledge development for the recovery of elm and ash.
On the way to the goal of elm and ash recovery, there are multi-step challenges, and challenges of different nature, where several approaches may have the potential to present a valuable part of the solution. The call therefore welcomes a diversity of approaches, methods and proposals for project implementation in multidisciplinary collaborations. Dutch elm disease and ash dieback are currently spread over large parts of the natural range of elm and ash trees. This also means that the problems and challenges are very similar regardless of country and region. The research projects awarded grants from the call must be relevant to Swedish conditions. However, the projects, in terms of implementation or study areas, do not need to be limited to Sweden or Swedish plant material.
Project focus and organisation:
- To participate in the call, Formas invites two or more research groups to join forces in a joint application and form an integrated project that creates added value from the collaboration of groups with different research focus and expertise.
- One of the research teams must be based at the organisation acting as the administrating organisation of the project. An additional research team, or teams, may be based at another organisation, or at another institution of the administrating organisation.
- An individual may participate in more than one application in the call. However, the individual's total activity level may not exceed 100% of full-time.
- The call encourages international cooperation and allows for funding of international partners in the project up to a total of 20 per cent of the total amount applied for. In addition, the project budget may include relevant costs for e.g. travelling and meetings linked to international cooperation within the project.
- Applicants should select two or three sub-themes from the list below to frame the thematic focus and implementation of the project. The application must justify the choice of sub-themes and describe how these are reflected in the project's organisation and in the division of responsibilities between the project's collaborating research teams. The justification must also include a description of how the work with several sub-themes creates added value for the goal of healthy populations of elm and ash, and restoration of the natural environments characterised by naturally reproducing elm and ash.
List of sub-themes
The four sub-themes of the call are listed below. Under each one there is a bulleted list with explanatory examples of what the sub-theme may include. However, research conducted under a given sub-theme need not be limited to what is described in these bulleted lists. State clearly in the application which sub-themes the project intends to address, how these are reflected in the project's organisation and how the project has the potential to create added value by integrating these sub-themes organisationally in a joint project.
1) Biology, ecology and pathology
- Genetic variation in elm and ash, and its links to resistance.
- Disease spread, disease progression and defence mechanisms.
- Interactions between trees, fungi and insect vectors.
- Interactions and defence mechanisms associated with non-pathogenic endophytic and subterranean microbes.
2) Application and development of breeding methods
- Conventional tree breeding based on phenotype selection.
- Propagation and resistance testing.
- Molecular genetic methods
- Genetic modification.
3) Climate change and future threats
- Impact of climate change and associated biotic stress on disease progression and resistance of individual trees or tree populations.
- Impact of climate change on the spatial distribution of diseases and pests affecting elm or ash.
- Strategies and readiness for current and future introduced pests and pathogens that may affect elm or ash.
4) Recovery of ecosystems and cultural heritage
- Management strategies to support the recovery of ecosystems characterised by elm and ash. These strategies should aim to create resilient ecosystems that function through the natural regeneration of healthy elm and ash.
- Policy instruments, including economic, legal and cultural aspects, to promote elm and ash and the restoration of natural environments characterised by these trees.
- Cultural heritage issues related to elm and ash, as well as the function of the trees for pollarding or as nursery and park trees.
Before you apply
All information on what to include in your application, how to apply and the assessment process can be found in the text below.
Grants from this call may only be managed by a Swedish university, university college, research institute, government agency with a research mission or other organisation with research as its main activity.
Who can become an administrating organisation? External link.
To be eligible to apply for a grant under this call
- The project leader must have a doctoral degree (no later than the closing date of the call).
- Participating researchers must have a doctoral degree (no later than the closing date of the call). Other staff involved in the project do not need to have a doctoral degree.
- Project leaders must be employed by the organisation administrating the project.
- There is no upper age limit for principal applicants and participating researchers, but full-time retired researchers are not eligible for salary support.
When applying for funding for a project, you can apply for both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include salaries, equipment and travel. Indirect costs are costs shared with others in the organisation, such as administration, IT and rent for premises. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overheads.
The call welcomes applications with a budget of SEK 2.5 - 5 million per year for three years. The total amount applied for may not exceed SEK 15 million. The project duration is 2026-11-01 to 2029-10-30, with an additional year of availability of project funds. All funds for the first year of the project will be paid out by the end of 2026.
Due to the war in Ukraine, it will not be possible to obtain funding for projects involving research collaboration with state or federal research institutions in Russia and Belarus.
You should write your application in English, as the review panel that assesses the application consists of both national and international reviewers. If you choose to write in Swedish, the application will be translated into English before assessment. Please note that you will not be able to see or make changes to the translated text before the application is forwarded to the review panel. The popular science description should be written in Swedish, while the summaries should be in both Swedish and English.
Under Swedish law, your application (including appendices) is considered a public document once it has been submitted to us. This means that anyone can request and access your application. Information can only be concealed if it is covered by confidentiality under the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400).
Formas has limited opportunities to classify personal data as confidential. Therefore, the application should not contain personal data for anyone other than those participating in the application. Nor should the application contain sensitive personal data, unless it is clearly relevant to the project.
If the project is awarded funding, the popular science description and project summaries in Swedish and English will be published in open project databases without confidentiality assessment. Therefore, avoid writing sensitive information in these sections.
At present, we see no problem with you as an applicant using AI as an aid when preparing your application. However, it is important that you are aware that the responsibility for fulfilling the commitments you make in the application lies with you as the applicant. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the content of both the application and the project plan is correct and that the research is carried out as described. You certify this when you submit your application. As an applicant, you must follow good research practice during the application process, which means that plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of content in the application must not occur.
At Formas, we care about ensuring that the projects we fund are carried out in a way that maximises positive and minimises negative impacts on the environment and climate. We therefore encourage you to design your project so that collaboration takes place primarily through digital meeting formats and that any necessary travel is carried out in the most climate-smart way possible. We also suggest that you include measures to minimise energy use and other resource consumption, emissions and waste in your project planning. However, this will not be part of the assessment of your application.
How to apply
You apply to Formas in our application system Prisma. There you enter the information needed for your application. For this, you need a personal account.
All limits for the maximum number of characters refer to characters including spaces. It is recommended to use the Arial font in font size 12 for the information entered in all text boxes.
The application must include a clear description of the project under the following sections:
Basic information
- Number of years covered by the application.
- Project title in Swedish and English (200 characters including spaces)
- Popular science description in Swedish (4 500 characters including spaces). The popular science description will, if the project is granted funding, be published in open project databases without a confidentiality check. The content of this field should therefore not contain sensitive information.
- Summary in Swedish and English (1 500 characters including spaces each). The project summaries will, if the project is awarded funding, be published in open project databases without a confidentiality check. The content of these fields should therefore not contain sensitive information.
Project description
- Aims and objectives of the project and background description containing an overview of the research area (7 000 characters including spaces).
- Project description including design, theory, methodology, implementation and a plan for scientific publication (15 000 characters including spaces).
- Description of the potential societal benefits of the projectAs this is a challenge-driven call with a defined thematic framework and purpose, societal benefit should be understood as benefit to the work on elm and ash recovery. Describe in the form how the applied project contributes to the work on elm and ash recovery, and how the results will be utilised in this context. Describe the relevant stakeholders/users of the research and how the research and its results are planned to be communicated with these stakeholders (8 000 characters including spaces).
- References included in the running text under the points above should be provided in a separate field (5 000 characters including spaces).
Budget
The project budget is presented in Prisma. Please note that the budget and budget specification should be written in English, a Swedish budget specification is not submitted for translation but is reviewed by the international review panel as it is. In Prisma, the entire amount applied for is written out, for example, SEK 1 million is written: SEK 1 000 000.
The budget is described in terms of:
Salaries, including social security contributions for each project participant. The amount you can be granted for salaries for an individual researcher, doctoral student or other staff may never exceed one hundred per cent of a full-time position. This also means that someone who has full salary funding for the entire duration of the project cannot receive additional funds for salary. Researchers who are full-time retired cannot receive funding for their own salary.
Percentage of salary refers to the percentage of the applicant's full-time salary that corresponds to the salary in the project.
Activity rate in the project refers to the percentage of a full-time position that the participant contributes. It shows whether the applicant is contributing in-kind or other funding to complete the project.
Operating costs refer to, for example, consumables, travel and conferences. It can also refer to publication in journals and databases that apply open access. Formas only grants funding for certain author fees. Read more under the heading Costs of publishing External link.. Operating costs also include purchased services, such as the purchase of consultancy services. Purchased services are recognised exclusive of VAT. It may also include the reimbursement of services and travel costs of persons from civil society organisations, national authorities, county councils or equivalent who have an advisory role during the project. It may also include costs for any collaboration activities during the implementation of the project, or participation in joint activities organised by the call coordinator. Specify operating costs in accordance with the practices of the administrating organisation.
Equipment and depreciation costs. Specify equipment and depreciation costs for equipment if relevant to the application.
Premises. You can apply for funding for premises costs, if they are not already included in the overheads of the project budget. Specify premises costs in accordance with the practices of the administrating organisation.
Total requested/Subtotal refers to costs already indicated in the previous budget tables and which will be automatically transferred to these items.
Indirect costs refer to overheads.
1. Universities and colleges may add indirect costs according to the full cost principle they apply. Universities and colleges only need to account separately in their accounts for eligible costs corresponding to the amount of the grant.
2. The following organisations, when participating in the project with non-financial activities, may charge actual indirect costs up to a maximum of 45% of their eligible salary costs
2.1 research organisations that are
- limited liability companies or partnerships in which the State has a direct or indirect legal controlling interest, or
- foundations in which the government appoints one or more board members
2.2 government agencies (other than universities) that are required by their instructions to conduct their own research,
The condition of a maximum of 45% applies provided that the organisation receives funds by government decision to conduct independent research. If the organisation also carries out economic activities such as contract research, these activities must be reported separately. If the organisation participates in the project with economic activities, the condition regarding other project partners below applies.
3. Other project partners may claim actual indirect costs, but only up to an amount corresponding to 30% of their eligible salary costs.
If funds are to be transferred from the administrating organisation to another organisation participating in the project, the overhead cost of the receiving organisation may be applied instead to the funds transferred. Explain and account for the different overheads in the budget specification. The total overhead cost for the project must be stated in the budget table. Formas does not grant funds for overheads on costs that you write off for equipment or premises.
Other costs refer to funds that are not applied for but are relevant to completing the project. An example is co-financing from partners or if the project receives funds from other sources.
Total cost refers to a budget summary.
Budget specification refers to explaining the budget in words. Indicate the breakdown of the grant requested in terms of amount per year and total amount per organisation if funds are to be transferred to another organisation. Provide a brief justification for the salary costs indicated in the budget. All other costs should be justified, such as participation in conferences, fees for open access to publications and data, etc. A description of the total budget of the project, including funding from other sources, should also be included. The budget specification is part of the assessment.
Ethics
You must indicate whether there are any particular ethical aspects to the project. If so, you must describe the ethical issues involved and how you plan to address them. This could, for example, involve research that uses personal data or research that involves experiments on humans or animals.
If you are conducting research on humans, human tissue or sensitive personal data, you must submit an application for ethical review to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority and obtain approval. If the research involves experiments on animals, you must also obtain approval from an animal ethics committee. You can apply for this via the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s e-service.
You must state in your application whether or not you have valid ethical approval. If you do not have ethical approval and your application is granted funding, you must obtain ethical approval before the described experiments begin.
If your research is not expected to involve anything that requires ethical approval, you must state this and explain how and why.
Classifications
Formas uses the project classifications in analyses and documentation at an overall level. The applicant makes the classifications by specifying the subject area, research field (SCB code), at least one global sustainable development goal to which the project can contribute, and keywords.
- Subject area
Select at least one and a maximum of three subject areas and add a subheading.
- Research field (SCB code)
Select at least one and a maximum of three research fields and two sub-levels that create the combined code.
- Global sustainable development goals
Enter at least one and up to three global sustainability goals that the project can contribute to, in order of priority according to degree of relevance.
More about the meaning of the goals. External link.
- Keywords
Enter at least one and up to three keywords that describe the project.
Administrating organisation - the organisation receiving the grant
In this call, only applicants from administrating organisations that are approved for all Formas calls can submit an application. Approved administrating organisations are listed as preselected in Prisma.
- Select your administrating organisation from the drop-down list.
- Select residence in the drop-down list.
Participants
- Project leaders invite collaborators to apply in Prisma.
- A participating researcher is a researcher with a PhD who is considered a co-applicant for the project.
- It is also possible to have participating administrators, they are not involved in the project, but people who help you fill in the application form. Participating administrators cannot register the application; project leaders must do that.
- All participants must have created their own personal account in Prisma.
- Project leaders invite the participants to the application by searching their first and last name and e-mail address in Prisma (please note that exact spelling of name and e-mail address is required).
CV
The project leader and participating researchers retrieve the data from their respective personal accounts in Prisma and add them to the application. Applicants should check in good time that their CV in Prisma is complete and up-to-date. If participating researchers have not accepted the invitation to participate or have not filled in the mandatory fields correctly, the project leader will not be able to complete the registration of the application. Participants who are not co-applicants do not have the possibility to attach CV information, instead their competences in the project should be described in the research programme.
The following CV information should be added to the application:
Education
- Research training
- Education at undergraduate and graduate level
Work history
- Current employment and longer relevant previous employment
- Postdoctoral stays
- Research exchanges relevant to the research described
- Any longer breaks in research (e.g. parental leave, illness, military or political service)
Qualifications and honours:
- Doctorate
- Supervised persons: doctoral students, postdocs, and thesis workers; Add as individual and/or add as group. When adding a group, indicate the total number for each category. When adding individuals, name the most relevant ones (max 10).
- Contributions obtained in competition, indicate the most relevant ones (max 10).
- Prizes and awards, indicate the most relevant (max 10).
- Other qualifications including publication summary: Under other merits, other merits relevant to the application should be listed, such as popular science publications and documented experience of collaboration and research communication (max 10). Project leaders and participating researchers should also provide a brief summary of their publication history, for the last five-year period and in total if the applicant's active research period is longer than five years (max 800 characters including spaces). This summary should include the following:
- Number of publications of different types (such as articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, books and other monographs, conference papers, popular science contributions)
- The summary should not include information on Journal Impact Factors or any other type of metric used to rank publishers or journals.
Publications
Principal applicants and collaborating researchers indicate their most relevant publications. Up to ten publications can be listed per person. Publications should be linked from the applicant's personal profiles in Prisma.
Appendices
The following appendix can be uploaded if relevant to the application:
Illustrations. If figures, tables or images are needed to describe the project idea, these should be appended. A maximum of one attachment of 4 MB in PDF format can be uploaded. Please note that a CV should not be attached as an annex. Letters of intent or other types of documents supporting the project should not be attached either.
After you have submitted your application
Formas will first check that the application fulfils the formal requirements set out in the call. If the application does not fulfil the requirements, it is rejected.
The following requirements will be checked in this call:
- That the administrating organisation has signed the application within seven calendar days after the call has closed.
- That the application has not been rejected by the administrating organisation.
- That the focus of the application is within Formas' areas of responsibility.
- that the focus of the application is within the scope of the call
- that the application is complete, i.e. that it contains all the mandatory information
- That the requirements placed on project leaders, project participants and organisations under Requirements for you and your organisation are met.
- That the project leader responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted the requested reports by the deadline.
All applications are assessed by an external review panel based on what is described in the application. It is therefore important that the application is as clear as possible in its content and that all important and relevant information is included.
Applications are assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
Scientific approach
- The project's research questions are clear, logical and in line with the purpose and focus of the call.
- The project addresses important research questions that develop, deepen or challenge the current state of the art.
- The project's choice of theory and method is appropriate.
- The project addresses ethical considerations in a satisfactory manner.
Societal relevance
- The project addresses issues relevant for society and can significantly contribute to the purpose and focus of the call.
- The project takes relevant account of the needs and circumstances of different parts of society.
- The expected results of the project can provide significant societal benefits.
- The project has an appropriate plan for communicating with relevant target groups.
- The project can significantly contribute to open science.
Implementation and competences
- The project team has the necessary competences and experience to successfully implement the project.
- The project implementation plan, including activity levels and budget, is realistic and appropriate.
- The project has a relevant and appropriate description of how the results can be utilised.
Our reviewers are currently not allowed to use AI tools to support the review of applications. There are several reasons for this. First, there is a high risk that uploaded information will be disseminated further. There are also risks related to confidentiality and the processing of personal data. Uploading an application or information from an application to any form of AI tool constitutes unauthorised dissemination of information. This applies not only to AI tools but also to many other services and tools for storing and sharing data.
Decisions on which projects will be awarded funding are expected to be taken on 22 September 2026. We will publish the decisions no later than the following day on Formas' website and you will receive an email when you can view the decision in Prisma. Decisions on grants cannot be appealed.
All approved projects must report back to Formas with regard to finances and project results three months after the end of the grant period. For projects longer than 18 months, a financial status report must also be submitted to Formas annually. All reporting is done in Prisma.
How to report expenditure and results External link.
Formas may impose requirements on how projects are to be reported in terms of content and results to enable dissemination and utilisation. This will be stated in the project decision in the event of funding. Formas may also impose requirements regarding participation in conferences and similar events to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge exchange.
Results from research funded by Formas must be published with open access.
You must also have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding from us, you must prepare such a plan. The plan does not need to be submitted to us, but you must be able to present it on request. By signing our terms and conditions for grants, you certify that a data management plan will be in place before the research begins and that it will be maintained.
Formas regularly transfers data from approved applications to the Swecris External link. database, which is managed by the Swedish Research Council on behalf of the government. The following data from approved applications is transferred to Swecris and made available as open data:
- Project title in Swedish
- Project title in English
- Summary in Swedish
- Summary in English
- Estimated project duration (start date and end date)
- Total amount granted
- Name of coordinating organisation in Swedish
- Name of coordinating organisation in English
- Organisation number of coordinating organisation
- Research subject SCB code
- Names of applicants and participants
- Gender of applicants and participants
- ORCID of applicants and participants.
Revision history
If we need to make changes to the call text after it opens, we will specify the changes here.
Contact information
For questions regarding the content of the call for proposals
For administrative matters and questions about Prisma
